It’s psychology. The staff can fix it..but how good is this staff? Clearly they can coach football, but there is more to it than that. I don’t think the Hawks staff sees the issue. They can correct a kids play all day long, but until they correct how he thinks the issue remains.

The first half of the Miami game they looked like they were at the pro bowl, lots of joking around with the other team..Why? they are young, insecure and immature. I saw it, just the manner they had. You can see the tude and confidence at home. Like a dog off it’s own property they don’t have any bite outside their own back yard. Be it how they coach on the road, or the attitudes of the players for now they are back on their heels on the road. You are what you think. No more and no less. Now this staff has to change the way this team thinks, and that can’t be found on film. Youth wins at home experience wins on the road. We are a shining example.

Dear PC..you can look up a theory called 'acting as if' learn it and teach it, or you can stick with the 4 year plan..perhaps make it 6?

I bet Pete is glued to this thread right now saying "wow, why didn't I think of that?"

Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

We haven't won on the road for one simple reason. The defense isn't as good in the 4th quarter on the road, (e.g.: QB pressure/sacks/TO's).

The Hawks had late 4th quarter leads in all of their road games, (with the exception of the Niners). These are situations when the Defense knows the opposing team is passing the ball. This is the situation a defense wants. It should be a sack fest or easy INT's.

Instead, no pressure on the QB's. The defense gave up last minute 80+ yard scoring drives to the Cards, Lions, and Miami to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The D gave up the short drive for the FG win vs the Rams, and almost blew the Panthers game. If the defense simply does its job and keeps them out of the end zone on those late game 80+ yard drives, that's 3 more road wins... and everyone would be talking about a Superbowl run.

Get 4th quarter Qb pressure/sacks or late turnovers on the road... or we will continue to lose road games.

I think clock management is key. We keep making drives for 7 or 8 mins. That's when our defense falls asleep. I would rather have the defense in longer and then put together a long drive in the end and finish the game. I feel when our offense started to produce the defense does not feel the pressure and being a young team falters.

The other option stop making conservative calls and keep using lynch if there are 10 people in the box.

Being able to close out games is a skill that your truly dominant teams have. You have to do this on the road to make the playoffs.If you have the lead with 4 minutes left, you have to get a couple of first downs. If you have the lead and the other team has the ball with 90 yards between them and a touchdown, that should be what Seattle wants. But they have had problems stopping the opposition when it counts. But we do have an excellent DVOA.

I'm encouraged because we haven't been blown out like the Mora era. Weve been in every game and thats progress.

Zebulon Dak wrote:It's because the other teams play way better at home too.

Good point Zebulon, to add to this ,Miami had lost their last 3 games and their backs were against the wall. They showed an urgency to win and our defense didn't. Marcus Trufant was pistol whipped like a red headed step pig.

Call me a dirty optimist but I think losses like this are games that stick in a players mind and overall lead to better more urgent play more consistentlyPart of the maturing (ma-toooring) process (pro-cesss) if you will

dunceface wrote:Call me a dirty optimist but I think losses like this are games that stick in a players mind and overall lead to better more urgent play more consistentlyPart of the maturing (ma-toooring) process (pro-cesss) if you will

Well, they've had five (5) of them stuck in the mind already. Much more and they could hemorrhage and have a team stroke. Maybe that's what's happing in the 4th quarter.

i keep hearing , we've been in every game on the road, true and it is encouraging, but my problem with the whole road thing is, we've not only been in the game, we've had the lead, late in the 4th, just to loose on a game winning last drive.. the pride of our team, our "D", gets competely manhandled in the running and passing departments... so the question to me is , why can this d shut a team down at home, and not on the road, 12th man? i don't know, don't have the answer... maybe it is just youth and they need more time to gel and mature as a team...

Our D did actually step up early in the 4th Quarter. The only problem was instead of an INT in the endzone which would have in all likelyhood sealed the game, Thomas got hit with a weak call, giving the fins new life on the couple foot line. Their final drive would have made Tebow proud and Trufant was terrible, no doubt they have studied this in the film room and know it's a problem.

This won't be a walk in the park to say the least. But Chicago has a pretty terrible OL and Cutler is made of glass. We look good on paper against the bears now we just have to execute.

i agree, obviously home field has an advantage with crowd noise, but it is still the same 11 guys out there on any given play on the road, why do they lose their atheletisim, and speed, and power, technique? 12th man has nothing to do with that. and yes the penalty killed us, but let's face it, our D has been getting pushed around all day long, for weeks now.

seahawks08 wrote:I think clock management is key. We keep making drives for 7 or 8 mins. That's when our defense falls asleep. I would rather have the defense in longer and then put together a long drive in the end and finish the game. I feel when our offense started to produce the defense does not feel the pressure and being a young team falters.

The other option stop making conservative calls and keep using lynch if there are 10 people in the box.

SmokinHawk wrote:I bet Pete is glued to this thread right now saying "wow, why didn't I think of that?"

Sure the OP's post isn't exactly Mensa material, but he has a point.

Pete should have gone into the Miami game looking to murder the Dolphins. Instead he went in with another conservative "let's try and run, punt on 4th and 1 from the Dolphins 38 to play the field position game, and put the game on our defense's shoulders" mentality.

To win on the road you have to have a "we're not favored to win, so let's pull out all the stops, go for broke.................. and if we lose, we lose" mentality.

The gameplan should have been to let Russell throw it around, be dynamic on offense and blitz the hell out of Tannehill to force mistakes.

dunceface wrote:Call me a dirty optimist but I think losses like this are games that stick in a players mind and overall lead to better more urgent play more consistentlyPart of the maturing (ma-toooring) process (pro-cesss) if you will

in 2010 we lost 9 games by 14 points or morein 2011 we lost 4 games by 14 points or morein 2012 we have lost 5 games by 4 points or less (all on the road)

seems to me that the coaching staff are doing a great job of getting more competitive, especially on the road.

No doubt PC and the team need to get better to win these games. But its really close. Maybe thats why everyone is freaking out right now.

But im with you, i see the balance shifting. This team is so much more competitive game in and game out than the last couple years. its interesting how critical everyone is.. almost like they forgot the beatdowns this team was subjected to so recently as last year.

SHOCKER315 wrote:We haven't won on the road for one simple reason. The defense isn't as good in the 4th quarter on the road, (e.g.: QB pressure/sacks/TO's).

The Hawks had late 4th quarter leads in all of their road games, (with the exception of the Niners). These are situations when the Defense knows the opposing team is passing the ball. This is the situation a defense wants. It should be a sack fest or easy INT's.

Instead, no pressure on the QB's. The defense gave up last minute 80+ yard scoring drives to the Cards, Lions, and Miami to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The D gave up the short drive for the FG win vs the Rams, and almost blew the Panthers game. If the defense simply does its job and keeps them out of the end zone on those late game 80+ yard drives, that's 3 more road wins... and everyone would be talking about a Superbowl run.

Get 4th quarter Qb pressure/sacks or late turnovers on the road... or we will continue to lose road games.

Great post (and very discouraging). I had forgotten about the late leads vs. the Crads and Lambs. Definitely NOT the signs of a top flight defense......SIGH